Teachers

Alexander Technique Training South West has a team of very experienced regular and visiting teachers, led by Head Of Training Gunda Fielden.

Gunda Fielden – Head of Training

Gunda trained in Berlin with Danny McGowan, graduating in 1996. She has taught on training courses for much of her time as a teacher, working in Berlin at AZAT from 1996-1999, teaching voice work at BATTSA in Bristol from 2008-2011, and working as Deputy Head of Training at CCARE in Totnes from 2014-2019. In addition to individual lessons Gunda has considerable experience offering Professional Development work for trained teachers. Before becoming an Alexander Technique teacher, Gunda worked in the theatre as a Director and Stage Manager as well as running acting workshops for young people. She has a particular interest in voice work – helping people reclaim the natural ease and resonance of their spoken voice, and is a strong advocate of the Technique’s role in positive ageing and a better experience of pregnancy and childbirth.

Linda Jordan – Deputy and Assistant

Linda trained to be an Alexander Teacher in Devon, with Jeanne Day and qualified in 1990. She developed a private practice in Bristol and also taught on the Teacher Training course there, becoming an Assistant Director to Ali Burrows, the Head of Training, after several years. In 2000 Linda completed a further training course with Steven Shaw and became a qualified teacher of the Shaw Method of Swimming (a method based on the principles of the Alexander Technique). Linda is an amateur musician and has a special interest in, and sympathy with, all those grappling with the intricacies of playing an instrument.

Charlie Loram (Visiting Teacher)

Charlie Loram has been an Alexander Technique teacher since 1997.  He runs a private practice and also draws on Alexander principles to coach natural movement competency in our original evolutionary movements such as walking,  running, swimming, climbing, crawling, lifting and throwing, using the wild settings around Dartmoor and Devon whenever practical. He has trained in MovNat and is Art of Running and Shaw Method Swimming qualified. He is an author, wilderness guide, bushcraft instructor, and re-wilding mentor. He teaches from his lifelong exploration of nature-connected living and has focus on getting back in touch with natural coordination, primal vitality and sense of belonging within the natural world in order to feel both at home in yourself and at home in nature. 

Martina Kaucka (Visiting Teacher)

Martina trained with Danny McGowan in Devon, Graduating in 2005. Prior to this, she trained in 1999 in The Czech Republic as a physiotherapist specialised in neurological and seniors rehabilitation. She teaches the Alexander Technique as one to one lessons, gives talks to groups and runs regular group sessions in Southampton and Ringwood. She runs her own company/social enterprise for her Physiotherapy work. From working with both these professions, Martina has had vast experience helping people, from personal improvement to rehabilitation or management of very severe conditions.

Helmut Rennschuh (Visiting Teacher)

Helmut first encountered the technique when applying the art of ‘non-doing’ to his piano playing, and trained with Danny McGowan from 1993-1996. He has a degree in Physics and Mathematics and has 4 years of experience as a secondary school teacher at a Steiner school in Weimar, Germany. He has been teaching one to one lessons and classes, including work at the music academies in Weimar and Leipzig. He has written three books on the technique “Das Richtige geschieht ganz von allein” (The Right Thing Does Itself), “Klavierspielen, Alexander – Technik und Zen” (Piano Playing, Alexander Technique and Zen), and “Innehalten” (Inhibition). He extended his studies working with Jeanne Day, Marjory Barlow, Elizabeth Walker, and Peter Grunwald (Conscious Vision, Naturally Better Vision) among others. From 2010-11 he trained in Voice-Dialogue and Conscious Body Training in Berlin.

Alison Roper-Lowe – Assistant Teacher

Alison first had Alexander technique lessons twenty years ago and is fascinated by how it can continue to change how you feel in yourself and your interactions with other people. She trained with Danny McGowan and Gunda Fielden, graduating in 2017 and teaches in Totnes. She is particularly interested in how AT can transform education and parenting, and has worked with teachers and parents, children and teenagers both individually and in a school setting. 

Trisha Hemingway – STAT Moderator

Trisha is the Moderator for our Training Course, and trained with Walter and Dilys Carrington during the 1970s. She has specialised in work with performers and has over 35 years of experience teaching the Technique. Trisha has taught in Sweden’s Helsingborg State Theatre, the Gotenborg Opera House and, more extensively, a 5 year project with Umeå’s concert musicians and opera singers in Norrlands Symphony Orchestra in the far north of Sweden. She has mentored and worked alongside Scandinavian teachers for more then 20 years, and has been a well known figure in the AT world for years.